Tag: easy bread

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Bread

Flake’ it ’til you make it with easy crescent roll bread

A delicious loaf of freshly baked bread can be achieved with nothing but canned crescent roll dough, a pan and an oven.
A delicious loaf of freshly baked bread can be achieved with nothing but canned crescent roll dough, a pan and an oven.

One of my favorite forums or “sub-reddits” on the social media site Reddit is called “Breadit.”

Anyone who has read this column for any length of time probably assumes I like it for the pun (and, yeah, I totally do), but I also adore seeing all the amazing baked goods people create and share with the group.

Breadit has made me really want to try making a loaf of challah, a beautiful braided loaf from the Jewish tradition, at some point.

The one that I don’t know that I will ever try, though, despite my undying admiration for people who achieve a perfect bake, is the croissant.

The idea of rolling out dough and layering it with butter and then rolling out the dough and layering it with butter, over and over again into eternity, is one of the most unappealing ideas I’ve ever seen. In the world of croissants, I’m definitely more of an eater than a baker. The same goes for crescent rolls, which I would much rather just buy in a can and skip the layering.

I think that’s why I was completely fascinated by a video I watched on Instagram recently, which took premade, canned crescent roll dough and turned it into a flaky, buttery loaf of bread—with pretty much zero effort.

I’m sure any chef would tell you it’s an abomination, but of course, I had to give it a try. After all, you know it must be at least a somewhat good idea when the Pillsbury Doughboy’s account comments on the recipe with “Hoo hoo! I love this with my whole tummy!”

This idea comes from a video by an influencer who goes by @that40yearoldguy on Instagram. You can do this with literally just one or two cans of crescent roll dough, or you can turn this into a flavored bread, too, which is what I did.

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Quick Croissant Loaf

A delicious loaf of freshly baked bread can be achieved with nothing but canned crescent roll dough, a pan and an oven.
Course Bread
Keyword butter, crescent roll dough, easy bread, garlic salt

Ingredients

Bread Ingredients

  • 1 or 2 8-ounce cans of crescent roll dough
  • butter for greasing pan

Optional Garlic Bread Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 1-2 teaspoons garlic salt to taste
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese grated

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare a nine-by-five-inch loaf pan by greasing it with butter and lining it with parchment paper hanging over the sides so the loaf is easy to remove. Set it aside.
  • If you’re not adding other flavoring, just open the canned crescent rolls and place them, rolled up, in the prepared pan (either one in the middle or two of them side by side).
  • If you are adding to it, melt the butter in a pan or in a microwave-safe dish, and mix in the garlic salt. Carefully roll out the dough, and press the seams together to create a solid surface.
  • Brush the melted butter all over the dough, and then sprinkle all over with the cheese. Roll the dough back up like it was and place it in the prepared pan. If you have a little of the butter mixture leftover, brush it on top of the bread.
  • Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Slice and serve.

You could easily spread some melted butter with cinnamon and sugar on the inside for something sweeter. Or grab some hazelnut spread or peanut butter to make it a bit gooey.

Really, if it’s something you like inside of bread, it’s not hard to add it to the crescent rolls and see what happens.

This turned out really well. We had it alongside some pasta, and it was a great addition. It was buttery and flaky, and obviously, it was an incredibly simple way to enjoy garlic bread hot out of the oven with pretty much no effort.

Who knew you could actually find an even lazier way to bake canned dough?

While this is no substitution for homemade crescent rolls and definitely not for the even more complicated croissant, it was definitely something I’ll make again at some point.

But despite how many times it ends up in the dinner rotation, I don’t think I’ll be sharing it on Breadit. No matter how good it is, it’s definitely not up to their standards.

This first appeared in print March 26, 2026.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Air Fryer Bread Breakfast

This easy air fryer recipe will totally ‘bagel’ your mind

Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.
Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.

Three years ago, I shared a recipe in this space for an easy homemade pizza dough.

If you remember that recipe, this week’s experiment is going to look very, very familiar, as it starts with the exact same basic ingredients. That’s why I knew it would turn out well, and I definitely wanted to try it.

I also wanted to try it, because it gave me an excuse to use my air fryer in a little different way. I have really been wanting to experiment more with baking in it, and this let me give it a try.

Plus, I have a strange addiction to bagels, and the promise of being able to bake a small batch in only 10 minutes was enough to get my attention.

This comes from the blog “Adventures of a Nurse.” You can find the original post at https://www.adventuresofanurse.com/air-fryer-2-ingredient-weight-watcher-bagels/. I didn’t add any ingredients outside of topping my bagels with everything bagel seasoning.

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Air Fryer Bagels

Baking in an air fryer is much easier than it sounds, especially with a simple bagel recipe that uses only a couple ingredients to create soft, yummy bread in only 10 minutes.
Course Bread, Breakfast
Keyword air fryer, bagel, easy baking, easy bread, non-fat Greek yogurt, self-rising flour, Weight Watchers

Ingredients

  • 1 cup self-rising flour plus more for your work surface
  • 1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt
  • 1 egg
  • Your favorite bagel seasoning

Instructions

  • In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and yogurt. Mix with a spoon until the dough forms into a rough ball.
  • Coat your work surface with a generous amount of flour, and turn the dough out onto the surface, kneading a few times to bring it together. Add more flour if it’s too sticky to work with.
  • Separate the dough into four balls and then roll each ball into a rope about one inch in diameter. Join the ends together to create a bagel shape, and place them into the basket of your air fryer.
  • In a small bowl, beat the egg well, and then brush the tops of the bagels liberally with the egg. Sprinkle on your desired seasoning, turn your air fryer to 350 degrees, and bake for 10 minutes or until the bagels are browned to your liking.
  • Eat immediately or store in an airtight container.

These were delicious. They were definitely not traditional bagels as far as texture goes, but they had fabulous flavor and were a lot less work than bagels normally are.

I do think you could mix in some other ingredients, too, like dried fruit or nuts or something along those lines. You could easily make them sweet or savory, depending on your mood.

I also liked that the recipe only made four. That cut down on the amount of time it took to make them, and I didn’t have to worry about having a dozen or more bagels for just Joey and I to try to eat by ourselves.

I still regularly use my flour/yogurt pizza dough to make all kinds of great pizzas at home, but I have to say this is my new favorite use for this ingredient combination. It’s made me wonder what else this easy miracle dough could accomplish.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 7, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Bread

These mini Irish loaves are ‘soda’licious

Mini Irish soda bread loaves are easy to make. They feature a crispy crust, pillowy insides and a combo of sweetness from raisins and a light peppery flavor from caraway seeds.
Mini Irish soda bread loaves are easy to make. They feature a crispy crust, pillowy insides and a combo of sweetness from raisins and a light peppery flavor from caraway seeds.

If there was a competition for taking the love of a single recipe to new heights, I think Edward J. O’Dwyer might win.

In doing some quick research about the origins of Irish soda bread, I came upon the website for The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, which O’Dwyer runs. It comes complete with links to news references, history and more. If you want to do a really deep dive on Irish soda bread, I highly recommend visiting them at sodabread.info.

As a teaser, soda bread became a staple mostly due to the potato famine in Ireland. Things were really rough for families, and soda bread is cheap to make and doesn’t need yeast, which is why it became increasingly popular.

Most of the time, Irish soda bread is made in large loaves, but I was especially intrigued by a recipe to make mini loaves and decided I had to give it a try.

This comes from Dawn Perry on the Real Simple Magazine website. You can find the original post at https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/mini-irish-soda-bread. I added extra raisins in my version.

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Mini Irish Soda Bread

Mini Irish soda bread loaves are easy to make. They feature a crispy crust, pillowy insides and a combo of sweetness from raisins and alight peppery flavor from caraway seeds.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Irish
Keyword caraway seeds, easy bread, Irish bread, mini loaves, no yeast bread, raisins, soda bread

Ingredients

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups raisins
  • 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
  • 4 tablespoons butter or margarine melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup buttermilk I used skim milk with a touch of vinegar
  • salted butter softened, for serving

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set them aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Add in the raisins and caraway seeds, and stir to incorporate them into the mix.
  • Add the melted butter, egg and buttermilk. Mix until everything is well combined. (If the dough still has dry spots, even after mixing well, add another cup of buttermilk.)
  • Using a two-inch cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and place the scoops about two inches apart on your prepared baking sheets.
  • Bake for 20 to 25 minute or until the tops of the loaves are golden brown.
  • Serve warm with salted butter and store leftovers in an airtight container.

This is a delicious bread, and the benefit of making the mini, one-serving loaves is that the insides stay pillowy and moist. The outsides are crispy, and the flavor of the bread has a nice combination of sweetness from the raisins and just a light, peppery flavor from the caraway seeds. Adding some salted butter to the warm bread is just the proverbial icing on the cake.

I hope these mini loaves do the traditional recipe justice and would make even Edward J. O’Dwyer a little proud.

According to the society’s website, he is currently working on a history book about the subject. I’ll have to keep that on my radar. I always appreciate someone who takes a good recipe as seriously as I do.

This piece first appeared in print on April 6, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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